Mike Judge, Jason Bateman team up for new office comedy

Right now, if you search IMDb for Extract (Mike Judge’s newly-announced workplace-comedy starring Jason Bateman), the occasionally dubious website directs you to Beef Extract Room, supposedly a silent documentary short released in 1901. (“AKA Beef Extract Department. No. 1: Filling Jar,” it says, “One of approximately 60 short films produced by Selig for meat-packers Armour & Co.”) There are no memorable quotes.

So, until that gets fleshed out a bit more, here’s the basic information. Judge has written, and will direct the film, set to be the first project under the Beavis and Butthead/King of the Hill/Office Space creator’s production company, Ternion, co-formed with Blades of Glory writers (and former King of the Hill producers) John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky.

Bateman will of course fill the accessibly-attractive leading-man-at-the-end-of-his-rope role, familiar material for both him and Judge. O, what gauntlet of humiliation must our corporate 30-something hero maneuver this time? Hollywood Reporter writes: “Extract follows a flower extract plant owner (Bateman) dealing with workplace issues and a stream of bad luck, including his wife's affair with a gigolo.”

Mirimax will distribute it in North America at a to-be-determined date. In the meantime, ABC has bought 13 episodes of Ternion’s first television series, The Goode Family, which will air the first quarter of 2009, according to Variety.